Piers Morgan to Greg Ball: “Senator, can you stop being such a jerk?”

Sen. Greg Ball on Monday again doubled down on his stance on torturing Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, defending himself in a series of no fewer than five media interviews ranging from New York City radio to a pair of appearances on Fox News.

Ball’s tweet—where he wondered “who wouldn’t use torture” on the surviving Tsarnaev brother if it can save lives—even picked up a mention on The Daily Show.

Ball, R-Patterson, Putnam County, quickly turned combative as Morgan pressed him on how he would torture the bombing suspect, considering Tsarnaev is an American citizen who will be tried in a U.S. court.

“Dude, you’re talking to the guy that supports the death penalty for cop killers, terrorists,” Ball said. “I’m talking about me. If you want to talk to the president of the United States about his policies the next time you golf or go play basketball with him, you can ask him.”

It only got more tense from there, as Morgan continued to press Ball and Ball tried to turn the table on Morgan.

“If you’ve got 30 minutes in a room, what would you do?” Ball asked. “Would you play cards with Osama Bin Laden? What would you do?”

The two men then quibbled over who was interviewing whom for the next dozen seconds or so before Ball mused whether he “should have said it in a British accent.” (Morgan is very much British.)

“Senator, can you stop being such a jerk?” Morgan fired back. Ball retorted: “You get paid for it, so I figured I’d give you your own medicine.”

There was no love lost between the two after the show. According to CNN, Ball left the interview “earlier than expected,” though Ball didn’t say “yes” when Morgan asked if he would stay through a commercial break. (After the break, Morgan said Ball “fled with his tail between his legs.”)

Aside from Morgan’s show, Ball also appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity” and “Fox and Friends”—where he duly noted he was eight miles into an eight-and-a-half mile run on a treadmill when he sent his torture tweet—to defend his stance. (Fox decided to swap out the words “scum bag” with ”(bleep)” when they aired Ball’s tweet on screen.)